Article in The Guardian Highlights Stupidity of Argument Against Condoms in Porn

Monica Foster sent me an article that I want to share with you guys. It’s from The Guardian, which is a newspaper based in the UK.

It’s a really good article. It’s about the condom debate. I hate to use the term “condom debate.” It’s really a health and safety issue. The condom issue get muddied sometimes with “Well, what about couples?” A lot of “what ifs” get tossed into the discussion, so let’s just focus on worker safety. Big productions. Let focus on being legitimate and getting some of that film tax credit money that we discussed a couple of weeks ago. Let’s think outside the box.

Let’s focus on safety, not who or when performers wear condoms. Condoms and politics. If you’re gonna talk about condoms and safety, you also have to talk about what happens if you get a disease and the aftercare you receive. Some of the testing facilities don’t have a doctor on staff, so if you come up positive for a disease, you’re on your own to get treated. That’s ludicrous.

When I got in the business at age 22, I was under the impression that there was a doctor for when someone tested positive. I didn’t know that AIM or Cutting Edge or whatever would just give you pills and say you’re good to go.

When you get a test and you’re clean, you get a piece of paper and are entered into a database that says you’re clear to work. Never mind that a day after the test you could go out and catch any number of STDs. The business says that your test protects you and you basically have a license to fuck.

The writer of the article in The Guardian seems to understand the world of porn pretty well. I want to read a little of it for you.

The title is “Condoms and Porn don’t mix is a stupid and unhealthy belief”

“One might think that when a person makes their living having sex with strangers, as porn industry performers do, using condoms would be a no-brainer. Yet despite the prevalence of STDs in the industry, the ill-conceived notion that condoms and porn don’t mix seems to have trumped common sense.”

“Apparently, the sight of a condom clad penis is a buzz kill for end users, and performers don’t want to wear them anyway. Or, at least, that’s what the Free Speech Coalition (FSC), the trade association for the adult entertainment industry, would like us to believe as it continues its fight against mandatory condom use. With another performer testing positive for HIV and the Los Angeles-based industry facing another moratorium in production, the time may have come for both the profiteers of porn and those who get their kicks from watching it to get over their condom phobia.”

“Last Friday, the FSC announced that one of their LA-based performers had tested positive for HIV, and that all filming would be suspended while they try to determine if anyone else in their talent pool had been exposed to the virus. This is the third time in the past four months that the industry has had to shut down production after performers tested positive. Despite these repeated blows to the industry’s bottom line, never mind the pain and suffering of the infected performers who have been hit with the double whammy of contracting a life-long disease and losing their livelihood, the opposition to mandatory condom use persists. At the same time, the industry’s justification for its opposition – that performers just don’t like condoms and that they prefer to rely on testing systems – is getting harder to swallow.”

Wow. This lady’s not getting her ass fucked on camera and even she doesn’t believe that the porn performer talent pool are unanimously saying, “We don’t wanna wear rubbers. Condoms are bad. No on rubbers.”

The mainstream press doesn’t buy it. But the industry continues to stand there and lie. It’s just lunacy, man. Fucking lunacy. And we put up with it. We’re being raped like Jodie Foster in The Accused.

“The arguments put forth by the industry against mandatory condom use are as creative as they are varied, ranging from violation of performers’ first amendment rights (the industry’s trade association is not called the “Free Speech” Coalition for nothing) to the risk of condom-induced vaginal irritation known as “floor burn”. Porn sex, as aficionados will attest, is not the same as civilian sex – put simply, performers go at it for hours on end, while for most of us mere mortals the penetrative part of the act can be over in a matter of minutes. Some female performers say that in shoots that last several hours, condoms can be irritating and can lead to internal abrasions. The industry claims that these abrasions could make it easier to transmit infection, and that this is the reason that many performers prefer to not use condoms at all.”

“While floor burn is a legitimate concern recognized by doctors, the second part of this argument (that using condoms ultimately makes it easier to transmit infection) makes little sense. If performers consistently use condoms, which have been proven to provide protection against disease, then the risk of transmitting infections can only be reduced. Yet this rather lame argument against condom use, that has been embraced by an industry that claims to care so deeply about its performers’ well being, kind of leaves a lot of them (the female ones in particular) stuck between a rock and a hard place. Basically female performers are left with a rather dismal choice – use condoms and risk being afflicted with the painful but treatable condition of floor burn, or don’t use condoms and risk contracting chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis and even HIV.”

“For now the only recourse most performers have to protect themselves against HIV and other STDs is to be constantly tested and hope that their fellow performers do the same. To the industry’s credit, it has a fairly rigorous testing system in place. Prior to the three cases of HIV being detected in September, performers were being tested monthly. Now the industry requires performers to be tested every 14 days (at their own expense) before they can be cleared for participation in a shoot. While testing has its place, it doesn’t quite hold up as a preventative measure, however. As Ged Kenslea, spokesperson for the Aids Healthcare Foundation put it:

“Relying on testing to prevent the transmission of HIV is a bit like using a pregnancy test as a form of birth control.”

These are facts. This is not rhetoric by Rob Black. This is an objective woman and she’s talking about “mere mortals” and the way they have sex. She even buys into the notion of hours of vigorous sex, which we all know is bullshit. We all know that sex scenes stop and go and nobody’s fucking vigorously for “hours.”

Shit, anyone who’s worked with Jennifer White knows she takes smoke breaks every five minutes. Every five minutes she takes a break. So don’t give me this shit that performers fuck vigorously for two hours straight non stop.

Tim Von Swine’s a heavy man. Don’t tell me he fucks for more than a five minute clip at a time. Tom Byron’s 52 years old. How many breaks did he take fucking as Obi-Wan in the desert on top of a landspeeder in Star Wars? Vigorous fucking. Please.

But this lady, even buying into the hours of vigorous fucking argument is saying that you’re all retards.

“As the industry continues to push testing as the best form of prevention, it seems to have forgotten that using condoms is a legal requirement not an option, at least in Los Angeles where the majority of all porn films produced in the US are made. Last year voters in Los Angeles County passed Measure B, which mandates the use of condoms in the adult entertainment industry. Even before this measure passed, condom use was already technically required under the state’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha) laws but was difficult to enforce.”

“Measure B was supposed to change that, but according to Kenslea, who has reviewed a representative sample of straight porn films, over 90% are still condom free. (This is in stark contrast to the gay porn industry which has voluntarily complied with condom laws and is still managing to thrive.)”

That’s a fact.

“So despite laws being in place to protect all performers, the industry continues to mostly defy them, all the time claiming to be acting according to the performers’ wishes and in their best interest.”

“Could it be that the industry has a more self-serving reason to favor testing over mandatory condom use that has little to do with the well being or otherwise of performers and a lot to do with profits? According to CNN, when the industry experimented with condom use over a decade ago after another HIV outbreak, revenues declined by 30%. It may well be that the concern that “Debbie does Condoms” will not be a big seller among porn users is what’s driving the industry to move out of Los Angeles to cities like Las Vegas where condoms are not (yet) required, rather than any real concerns that condoms are injurious to performers’ health.”

“I hope before any more performers learn through the industry’s mandatory testing that they have contracted HIV, which could have been easily prevented by observing mandatory condom laws, they will at least question their employer’s motives.”

So there you go, guys. Don’t really know what else to add. Great article.

Here’s a comment from one of the readers:

“Completely agree with this and have been moaning about the excuses offered since listening to a panel of porn stars and experts offer the same excuses at the Brighton Science Festival this summer. The main argument offered, aside from the “porn is a marathon not a sprint” (floor burn) was that it would reduce the fantasy aspect.”

“Interestingly however, the same day at the Science Festival involved discussions of young people using porn for its educational value. Though there are many aspects this issue itself, I would take your argument further and claim that porn stars have a duty to wear condoms not only to protect themselves but to protect their audiences. Of course, better sex education and monitoring of children’s internet habits are important but they are by no means a panacea.”

Even laymen are saying that our arguments are ridiculous. He’s saying that young people use porn as education. Porn can be used as an educational tool. I’ve been saying that since day one, that we could actually be embraced by society like we never have before if we used condoms.

Instead, we have mainstream press and people in society looking at us like we’re retarded.

The public is saying that porn can be a positive influence on society because of its educational value and can be embraced by the government and not be condemned and having people go to jail like I did.

If I had produced a movie with a safe sex message, there is no way the government would’ve gone after me. They would’ve been fucked. There is no way that a movie promoting safe sex is without socially redeeming value.

If I had money and was in the game right now, first thing I would be doing is promoting condoms, selling condoms. I would be out recruiting girls to do promotion. Setting up non profits, getting involved with organizations like AIDS Healthcare Foundation and getting girls to be spokespersons.

Think about this guys. Steve Hirsch spent thousands on billboards on Sunset Boulevard to promote the Vivid Girls. Do you realize you could have porn stars promoting safe sex all over Hollywood and it wouldn’t cost you anything?

Can you imagine a billboard campaign with beautiful porn stars promoting condom use? Jesus Christ. How do you not see that as valuable?

How can you campaign for no condoms when you’re going against Mother Nature? It’s a battle you can’t win. Mother Nature created a disease called AIDS and it kills you. Condoms help prevent its spread. How does our industry expect to win a battle against Mother Nature?

We’ve somehow managed to escape a pandemic of HIV in the straight industry. At least we think we have. The administration is so corrupt and they constantly lie, so who knows if we ever get the real picture? They disarm and infect. How many HIV cases are we never told about?

Especially when the mainstream press is saying, “OK guys, we get it. We get all the bullshit. But there comes a point when you just look like a bunch of war profiteers.”

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. The tobacco and alcohol industries cause unbelievable death and destruction. Yet they thrive in our society and are profitable because they adhere to regulation. The porn industry has always resisted any form of oversight and has always operated in the shadows.

The porn industry has seen the world start to embrace it as a legitimate form of entertainment, especially in the last ten years or so. People in the California legislature have made overtures to accept us, but we have pushed them away. When Cal/OSHA had meetings with the industry we booed and catcalled like children and said go away.

We’ve thumbed our noses at condom legislation. We haven’t embraced change and as a result still remain an outlaw industry. We had a chance to benefit from a film tax credit, but it was resisted because Hollywood said we don’t need an unregulated disease spreading entity in our midst. They said why should the adult industry share in tax benefits when they don’t have to adhere to the same standards that our legitimate industry does?

We thumbed our nose at the city and state and Diane Duke and Free Speech Coalition sent Peter Acworth and a bunch of freaks to Sacramento to lobby for no condoms. And here we have four cases of HIV in less than five months.

Cal/OSHA even wrote an addendum to their guidelines to include the adult industry. The wrote a section in their rulebook to address the unique health and safety requirements of porn. You can’t get any more legitimate than being Cal/OSHA approved.

If we had movies with a Cal/OSHA stamp of approval the obscenity debate would be over. I defy any obscenity prosecution to come our way with condoms and a safe sex message and a Cal/OSHA stamp of approval.

I defy any prosecutor to come at a movie for obscenity with such a socially redeeming message. You wouldn’t need a high priced lawyer to fight that one. Fucking Jeffrey Douglas could handle it.

It’s just common sense, guys.

Fortunately, people are starting to see the truth. People are starting to see through the bullshit being fed to them by Free Speech Coalition.

All the issues that have popped up in the last year and a half, from Mr. Marcus and his syphilis, from Alex Gonz and his hepatitis C, which FSC still won’t address, to all of the HIV cases, people in the real world are starting to see through the smoke and mirrors. The mainstream light that has been thrown on this industry in the past year and a half is starting to expose these cockroaches for what they are.

Free Speech Coalition, PASS, Evil Angel, AVN, XBIZ, the entire existing power structure of this business have worked collectively to disarm you and what’s happening is infection after infection.

What other proof do you need? The mainstream press is getting the picture. It’s about time our industry did too.